I apologize for your financial misfortune.

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I'm pretty sure this is a partial trolling effort at minimum. But Kwanzaa isn't as old as I am, so I don't know how deep those traditions could really be. But if you're really sincere, Habari gani?

Anyway, if there was ever a "war" on Christmas it's already been won by secularists who have turned it in to a celebration of the worst of America- advertising and consumerism.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I wouldn't call it a war as much as I think its purpose has changed greatly. I'm sure there was "a time when it was good back in the days" or some similar bullshit, but what I see now is a greed driven culture that uses this holiday to overspend or one-up everyone and then can't do an ounce of nice shit the rest of the year. I think Thanksgiving is enough as a national holiday and a time to get together with family to celebrate the year. If you want to celebrate Christmas, you should do so as a religious believer, much as you would for other religious holidays, but it shouldn't be a national holiday.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Trolling is now a celebrated behavior, it can even win you a presidency.

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Yet Target will not let the Salvation Army ring the bell on their property. Fucking asshatts.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Another bad celebration, this one of gluttony and American football.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Why do you care? If somebody wants to give during the holiday season, there are any number of places to do so.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I've honestly never cared and don't understand why people do. We celebrate Christmas and if you don't I'm okay with that. I'll say "Happy Holidays" 9 times out of 10 if I am not sure you celebrate Christmas. I'm not going to try to convince you to celebrate Christmas and I'm going to politely ignore you if you try to convince me not to celebrate Christmas. No big deal. There are MANY other things to get annoyed or pissed by.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Stop being reasonable!

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Yeah, but I don't have to go the mall and buy shit for people.

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What are these MANY other things?

Yeah, that's the same way I feel. Unfortunately, there are a good number of people who can only validate their beliefs if everyone else has the same beliefs. When I was in Catholic schools, there were quite a few parents I heard say things like, "yeah, those people are going to hell because they don't celebrate Christmas". When you hear shit like that as a kid, you either follow it or you start thinking that its bullshit, like I did. Now we are all PC because we can't offend anyone. I think if we just keep our beliefs to ourselves, we can say Merry Christmas to people and not piss one another off.

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_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Why can't we make it a little Ramadan every day?

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Why do people whine so much about consumerism? I'm sure life was great when kids went outside and played with a stick and a rock. I'm sure life was great when women had to sew together beaver pelts to stay warm. They probably were like "I'm glad there isn't a store filled with things to enrich my life and bring me enjoyment because now I really know what Christmastime is for!"

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I am reasonably sure that playing outside with a stick and a rock is how Jose Abreu developed his FAR SUPERIOR skills.

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Actually, I don't think they gave those things a second thought. But they did have fresh air and clean water.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Really?

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Just like they used to sit around and stare at the wall waiting for someone to invent television.

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They had to wait for football to be invented first.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I have fresh air and clean water and I will hopefully live past 60!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yes?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't think anyone's complaining about modernized health care and/or modern building codes. The complaint is about kids who have 5,000 toys, 6 video games, 3 tablets, a miniature car, and a camel. There is study after study that show that this level of need for material things does not make us happier and in fact makes us sadder and more disconnected from our fellow human beings.

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I think you are taking it to the extreme there though.

To me, consumerism is buying things you don't "need" but will enrich your life. For instance, one of the gifts I got my wife was an automatic apple peeler. Now, we can peel apples by hand but it kind of sucks when you are making a pie. So, I purchased that for her as a gift for Christmas. I don't think that is a big deal.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

that will end up in the appliance graveyard

Well, no, I don't think anyone is saying it is. When people complain about the consumerism associated with Christmas, though, I don't think they're talking about a super rich Purdue grad buying his wife an apple peeler.

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What are they talking about though? I'm open to hearing definitions that differ from my own.

Do we really think a large portion of society is spending thousands of dollars on their kids for Christmas?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You're replying to BRick, so I'm not sure how compelling the 'human connection' argument is going to be.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

A lot, in my experience. Dude, it's my daughter's first Christmas, and both sets of grandparents are basically fighting over who can spend more on her. I see all these kids getting tons of crap, man. My nephews will basically open a gift, throw it over their shoulder, and move onto the next. It's insane.

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You should have gotten her a vacuum.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!